City will also post regular updates on oil and gas activity

By Anthony Hahn

Staff Writer

Posted:
09/21/2017 08:05:12 PM MDT

Updated:
09/22/2017 12:12:47 PM MDT

Schlumberger Oil Field Services employees work to change a perforating tool string before putting it into a fracking well on the Crestone Peak Resource Woolley Becky Sosa fracking location in Erie in June. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

Online

For information on Lafayette oil and gas activity, go to bit.ly/2fdTt2R

The city will send an ordinance requiring oil and gas operators to map their pipelines to its Planning Commission next week — a landmark measure similar to what Erie officials sanctioned amid industry resistance earlier this month.

Lafayette has included a provision that would increase setback limits to 750 feet — up from 350. It would include subsurface facilities such as flow lines and gathering lines in its language.

If approved, Lafayette could be the first in the state to sanction such stringent setback requirements, according to attorneys specializing in oil and gas matters.

Boulder County commissioners announced last week that the county had learned 8 North LLC, a subsidiary of Extraction Oil and Gas LLC, applied for a state drilling and spacing order for a 1,280-acre area between Arapahoe and Baseline roads in the Lafayette-Erie area.

8 North also wants to explore a 2,720-acre area between Oxford and Quail roads along East County Line Road.

Advertisement

Lafayette has also begun to post updates on recent oil and gas activity throughout the city, as discussed in a City Council meeting that saw an outpouring of residents asking leaders to push back on drilling plans earlier this week.

"We realize the recent oil and gas application has generated a lot of questions from the community members and we want to provide as much information as we can to help residents better understand the process and what's happening," Lafayette spokeswoman Debbie Wilmot said Thursday.

There are currently nine producing wells within Lafayette city limits, according to the city's website, and a permit for new drilling in the city hasn't been pulled in over 20 years.

The language was fashioned after similar wording used in La Plata County code, Lafayette Councilwoman Merrily Mazza said in August. According to La Plata County Attorney Sheryl Rogers, its measure requires operators to hand over maps of pipeline locations to officials if an emergency response is necessary.

However, Rogers said those maps are kept from the public eye — even with a Colorado Open Records Act request.

"The requirement to have developers and oil and gas operators provide maps and locations of all subsurface facilities is a response to the explosion and demolition of a home in Firestone," the measure's staff report reads. "This is a reasonable request if it provides valuable data to be used by residents and the City in future development decisions."

Lafayette's move to require local operators to map their pipelines throughout the city isn't altogether new — Erie finalized a similar ordinance earlier this month. However, if it's approved, the implications could leave the city in the crosshairs of the oil and gas industry.

Many communities have already adopted a 750-foot setback. However, Lafayette's proposed setbacks — which include flow and gathering lines — would reach much further.

"Without the mapping information of where the existing flow lines are located staff is unable to ascertain what level of impacts this will have on future developments," the staff report reads. "As it stands, a 750 foot setback seems a reasonable response to growing concerns over oil and gas development in the areas surrounding Lafayette."

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has said it does not know the locations of all the industry's pipelines, but leaves it up to local jurisdictions to decide where development can occur in proximity to pipelines.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story